"I have six more weeks minus three days, but who's counting?" laughs Ofer Weissblum, a Tel Aviv resident who works in high tech, as he calculates the time he has left in the paternity leave he has taken to look after his two-month-old son Uri.
Weissblum is one of the few fathers who take this kind of leave in Israel: which is given to the couple and not just the mother. The mother takes six weeks and receives a allotment from the National Insurance Institute that is supposed to replace her salary, and then her partner can trade off with her with respect to who gets the allotment.
According to NII statistics, in 2003, 128 Israeli fathers chose to take a break from the rat race to change diapers. In 2006 the number rose to 199, in 2007 to 246 and in 2008 to 260 (as compared to about 90,000 mothers).
Most of the men who took paternity leave earned more than their wives. According to the 2007 figures, the largest numbers of fathers who elected to take paternity leave lived in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and Kfar Sava. The lowest numbers of fathers who did this were in Nazareth, Bnei Brak and Ashdod.
Lack of awareness, cultural perceptions and fear of harming one's career are some of the reasons why so few men opt to take paternity leave. In order to encourage taking this kind of leave, various countries, such as Belgium, France, Spain and the Scandinavian nations have created mechanisms for offering part of the leave upon the birth of a child to the father only.
In Norway, for example, most of the childbirth leave, which lasts for 54 weeks (as compared to only 14 weeks in Israel) can be used by both parents, though six weeks of it are intended for the father's use only.
In mid-October MKs Yoel Hasson (Kadima) and Haim Oron (Meretz) proposed legislation in the spirit of the Norwegian law. Beyond the paternity leave they are able to take today, this law would independently offer Israeli fathers a paternity leave of two weeks that only they can use, in addition to their wife's leave.
Weissblum and a few others have already tried this themselves.
"From the very first week of the leave I felt that our relationship improved,: Weissblum said. "After the birth I didn't exactly understand how this creature was connected to me and what to do with him, because I saw little of him. Now, when I'm with him all day, I am getting to know him and I see that he too is calmer with me than he was in the beginning. My wife is already complaining that he's more connected to me than to her."
Michal and Nimrod Arluk of Tel Aviv have created for themselves a unique type of leave. Both of them have downshifted at work, he as a personal trainer and she as an actress and scriptwriter, and both of them are caring for 4-month-old Alona. "This is an amazing experience," says her father. "It was very important to me not to be one of those fathers who give their baby a kiss in the morning and comes home when they are already asleep in the evening. It was important to me to be there, to be a part. To see her and for her to see me. And I do everything that has to do with caring for her. I can even feed her because there is expressed milk, and I can sit with the mothers in the park. This too is part of the experience."
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